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Re: Australians investors buying up Jersey City housing
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Home away from home
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2014/12/21 14:43 Last Login : 2015/11/15 0:07 From Harsimus Cove
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https://www.google.com/search?q=marat+ ... n#imgrc=JQkWprKqcX3xeM%3A Free standing bathtubs frighten me. Who was the designer, Charlotte Corday?
Posted on: 2015/6/28 12:30
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Re: Australians investors buying up Jersey City housing
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Home away from home
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Their idea of what looks like a nice carpet is awful. I loathe that puke green color in any room.
Posted on: 2015/6/28 3:45
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Re: Australians investors buying up Jersey City housing
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Home away from home
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Construction is allowed to commence at 7 AM. So, if they are waiting until 7:30, they are being nice. Also, not all of their properties are rentals. Many are bought, fixed and then sold. There is nothing sinister there. It's an investment group. Some properties are cheaper to own and continue renting, while others they probably conclude is best to fix and sell and realize a quick, one-time profit.
Posted on: 2015/6/27 17:34
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Re: Australians investors buying up Jersey City housing
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Home away from home
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2006/5/10 16:36 Last Login : 2023/7/18 1:45 From Hamilton Park
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Do you think they can really rent 22 Hamilton Place for $9,000? Seems incredibly high to me.
Who forms the market for these whole house rentals, is it corporate relocations? Seems that anyone intending to stay in the area would buy rather than pay $9,000 per month rent. Robin.
Posted on: 2015/6/27 15:38
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Re: Australians investors buying up Jersey City housing
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Home away from home
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2005/11/12 17:04 Last Login : 5/7 14:26 From Downtown JC, VVP Area
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I have no idea what their motivation to sell is, but given that they just purchased the two buildings by me for a bit less than $1.5M each would suggest that they aren't seeing this as the top of the market and ready to pop. I also have no idea whether these are "quick-flip" sales or properties that they've had for a few years, nor what the asking prices are.
Posted on: 2015/6/27 14:54
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Re: Australians investors buying up Jersey City housing
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Home away from home
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2014/12/21 14:43 Last Login : 2015/11/15 0:07 From Harsimus Cove
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If Harsimus Cove is an example, I'd say yes. It seems that young couples are buying row houses and using them as one family dwellings. It also seems to me (totally observational and not supported by stats) that a number of buyers are French and Italian. The French have a school on 3rd which may be a draw. These houses are pretty small - maybe 2200 square feet w/o additions and a disproportionate amount of space is taken up by stairs and halls.
Posted on: 2015/6/27 14:54
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Re: Australians investors buying up Jersey City housing
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Interesting... Is it because they can see the popping of the bubble coming soon? Do you know what kind of prices they're asking?
Posted on: 2015/6/27 1:24
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Re: Australians investors buying up Jersey City housing
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Home away from home
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2005/11/12 17:04 Last Login : 5/7 14:26 From Downtown JC, VVP Area
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They're an investment firm, plain and simple. The work looks great but I've seen it and it's medium-quality IMO. It ought to look great - the rent is $8995/month! Sheesh! They now own 5 houses on my block including 2 recent purchases across the street from me. They come in with all-cash offers and no contingencies, so they basically win on most bidding wars. Their contractors are incredibly obnoxious with power tools sometimes starting around 7:30 a.m. and they block off parking spaces like they own the street. And they're rentals. We've had some great renter neighbors but most of them don't seem to have the least bit of interest in getting to know their neighbors. Too bad, their loss. But it changes the vibe of the block when it changes from owners to renters... The word I have from 2 different Real Estate agents is that they're starting to sell some of their improved properties. Interesting...
Posted on: 2015/6/27 0:09
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Re: Australians investors buying up Jersey City housing
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Stunning! I know everyone around seems to love hating on "the Australians" but every single one of the renovations they have done is incredible. No detail is spared, and all of them are simply beautiful.
Posted on: 2015/6/26 22:50
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Re: Australians investors buying up Jersey City housing
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Looks like another Dixon renovation: 22 W Hamilton Pl. Gorgeous!
Posted on: 2015/6/26 15:19
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Re: Australians investors buying up Jersey City housing
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Home away from home
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That's a good question. Are JC tax assessors required to adjust the assessed value of properties to reflect market value? If so, what is JC's "equalization rate"? Market value for comparable properties will never be has high in the Heights as it is for DTJC; market conditions and low interest rates aside, the Heights' location (and related lack of mass transit, increasingly important in today's urban market) works against it.
Posted on: 2015/5/22 20:43
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Re: Australians investors buying up Jersey City housing
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Home away from home
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2014/12/21 14:43 Last Login : 2015/11/15 0:07 From Harsimus Cove
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If I understand correctly, a renovation does not immediately increase your assessment and hence taxes in JC - that would be a spot assessment and would theoretically cause everyone else's taxes to go down because the total amount collected is fixed. Only after a city-wide reval will assessments and then taxes be adjusted to reflect improvements. What I don't understand is how or if comparable sales or neighborhood characteristics effect assessment. Might a freestanding house with a driveway in the Heights get assessed more because it has parking and more windows than a row house in DTJC?
Posted on: 2015/5/22 12:44
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Re: Australians investors buying up Jersey City housing
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My parents in central Jersey had a reval a few years ago, and a renovated kitchen that includes new cabinets and appliances will result in a higher assessment, as will finishing a basement. In my parents case, a bathroom renovation added $7k to the assessed value. I know a number of people in JC who put various home improvement projects on hold when Healy announced the reval. Contractors' phones started ringing in earnest when Fulop canceled the reval.
Posted on: 2015/5/22 3:20
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Re: Australians investors buying up Jersey City housing
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Home away from home
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2006/11/13 18:42 Last Login : 2022/2/28 7:31 From 280 Grove Street
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The fitting and fixtures of a property don't come into the equation - It's how many bedrooms, bathrooms and square feet you have. You could have solid gold door handles or the newest 'whiz bang' oven or appliances - It's the skin and bones fixed structure that gets assessed and of course, location location location! The house / apartments' 'cosmetic dressing' is what many people get screwed (over paying) on when buying new or used properties - It's like having a bread loaf with cinnamon cooking in the oven to give a homely feel (smell) when you have an 'open for inspection' of a property up for sale!
Posted on: 2015/5/22 1:10
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My humor is for the silent blue collar majority - If my posts offend, slander or you deem inappropriate and seek deletion, contact the webmaster for jurisdiction.
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Re: Australians investors buying up Jersey City housing
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My neighbors across the hall gutted their apt when they bought it and put in all high-end fixtures. I doubt very few, if any, permits were pulled. Their place is now worth several thousand dollars more than mine at this point, yet we pay the exact same in property taxes.
Posted on: 2015/5/21 22:33
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Re: Australians investors buying up Jersey City housing
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A former neighbor gut renovated his historic brownstone near VVP a couple years ago - basically as soon as Fulop stopped the reval. The renovation easily bumped the market value of the house well north of $1.5 million. The work was completed over a year ago, but I just checked the tax records online. He's still paying just $12,000 a year in property tax. I don't think he bribed anyone - he's not the type. But I am fairly certain the contractor he hired to do the job was shrewd enough to avoid pulling certain permits.
Posted on: 2015/5/21 21:59
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Re: Australians investors buying up Jersey City housing
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The amazing thing about this place is it is currently assessed yep, if a regular person did the kind of gut remodels that they are doing, taxes would go through the roof. They are clearly paying off the right folks, as it doesn't seem like the properties they have renovated experience increases.
Posted on: 2015/5/21 15:41
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Re: Australians investors buying up Jersey City housing
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Posted on: 2015/5/21 12:55
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Re: Australians investors buying up Jersey City housing
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The carriage house in the back is on the market. Looks so cute!!!
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Posted on: 2015/5/21 12:51
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Re: Australians investors buying up Jersey City housing
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The amazing thing about this place is it is currently assessed
at 185900 and is paying only $13819.81 in taxes. A similar (actually a little smaller) brownstone in Hoboken is paying $26700. Link Did someone say REVAL!! Quote:
Posted on: 2015/5/5 17:58
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Re: Australians investors buying up Jersey City housing
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Looks like they're having an "investor day/tour" at 237 Montgomery Str. Initially I thought it was an open house (door open, lady with balloons on stoop), so I asked if I could go in and take a look. Nope, for investors only - most people there are in suits, or shirts with ties.
Apparently, there's a small "carriage house" in the back of the house (sitting at the end of the empty lot next door). It's a 2-bed and and 2-bath. It was renovated by Dixon as well, and will be on the market shortly (separate entrance from 237 MOntgomery). Imagine how great this whole thing (brownstone up front + carriage house in the back, plus a small yard) would be for a family. DROOLING!!!!!!!!
Posted on: 2015/5/5 16:11
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Re: Australians investors buying up Jersey City housing
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Can't find it, was at least a decade ago. Found this great quote though in a long article from 97: Quote: Economists argue passionately about most issues, but not about rent regulation. When the American Economic Association polled its members in 1992 on a variety of topics, the proposition that elicited the greatest consensus -- 93 percent agreement -- was that ''a ceiling on rents reduces the quality and quantity of housing.'' The most quotable summary of the research comes from a Swedish economist, Assar Lindbeck, the former chairman of the Nobel Prize committee for economics: ''Next to bombing, rent control seems in many cases to be the most efficient technique so far known for destroying cities, as the housing situation in New York City demonstrates.'' http://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/04/mag ... -demand.html?pagewanted=5
Posted on: 2015/4/16 0:09
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Re: Australians investors buying up Jersey City housing
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Home away from home
Joined:
2010/5/26 20:32 Last Login : 2023/9/14 15:34 From Hamilton Park
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Could you post a link to that story. Sounds like a bunch of morons.
Posted on: 2015/4/15 19:08
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Re: Australians investors buying up Jersey City housing
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What, and have the wealthy & middle class cutout of the deal? Politically that would be the end of it. I especially love the arguments I've seen over the years that if the middle class lost their rent stabilized units they wouldn't be able to afford the private schools and weekend houses that make city life possible, and then they'd HAVE to move out to Teaneck. My other favorite story was the couple who were so sure of stabilization=owning that they spent hundreds of thousands combining 2 units into one fabulous place only to find that they ran afoul of the then new decontrol parameters.
Posted on: 2015/4/15 17:49
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Re: Australians investors buying up Jersey City housing
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Particularly galling was seeing Drea De Matteo bemoaning the loss of her rent-control apartment. Not to be heartless, but the woman can certainly afford a market rate apartment. And, therein lies the issue with rent control laws and related laws that directly manipulate rents and anomalies like perpetuity. Affordable housing, and rent control, should come with certain income requirements that should be verified continually. Otherwise, you get the scams and abuses you see now.
Posted on: 2015/4/15 15:59
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Your post is a bit confusing. Are you saying that you hope Dixon will sell their current properties in order to allow for a resident owner to take over? Three problems with that statement: - from what I have seen on their website, and elsewhere, the properties they have renovated look stunning, and rent for above average rates compared to surrounding properties. Their entire model is based on buying properties, fixing them and then renting them, creating a steady income stream for their investors. - higher rents will normally net you nicer tenants (not always, but there is a correlation there) which in turn should work out to good/better neighbors - even if they [Dixon] were to sell their Heights properties, what guarantee would ANYONE have that the new owner will not turn around and rent it out? By your admission, the properties they have bought up in the Heights are well maintained. To date, we have seen them buy properties all over JC and gut renovate each one into something much better. Check out Trullia and other sites for their listings. I was perhaps a bit skeptical when they first showed up, but I have nothing bad to say about them now. My only complaint/worry is that if/when I decide to buy a property locally, I may be competing against a deep pocketed REIT for whatever little desirable stock is available, and now that I have seen what you can do with a local brownstone, I will want to do something similar, and I am sure that would be VERY, VERY costly.
Posted on: 2015/4/15 15:45
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Re: Australians investors buying up Jersey City housing
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I checked the 5 properties in my neighborhood - 2 on Griffith Street, 3 on Sherman Avenue - that they bought. All wood-framed rowhouses (2 family?), all relatively well maintained. 152 Sherman Avenue a particularly nice. Griffith Street has some particularly trashy rentals with real low-class residents; these are not them. Hopefully their m.o. is to improve, as opposed to demolish, these houses. It would be nice if they sold them, as my corner of the Heights would really benefit by having more resident owners who care about the appearance of their properties and the street.
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We've had conversations about gentrification on this message board - here in JC you will find a much different take on it than in NYC, with a lot more people - myself included - hoping to see more gentrification as it brings in a more diverse mix of people, with expectations of amenities, new stores etc., that follow.
Posted on: 2015/4/15 14:50
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Re: Australians investors buying up Jersey City housing
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This discussion just reminded me of the recent gas explosion in the East Village. A landlord cuts dangerous corners and people die. Before the two missing men were even found, the rent-regulated tenants were already on TV whining about how there was no place for them to go at their existing, ridiculously low rents. Why do these tenants assume that property owners should just offer them a place to live in perpetuity at a loss? This was one of those situations where I had no sympathy for the landlord or tenants. They deserve each other.
Posted on: 2015/4/15 14:16
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Re: Australians investors buying up Jersey City housing
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Renters have the right to have the terms and conditions of their lease / rental agreement honored, just like any other contract. What has happened though is that laws have warped this legal relationship to where tenants have more right to the property; rent control a common example 'squatters rights' as an extreme example, than the people who actually hold legal title. As pointed out by others in this thread, this causes a major disincentive to build, renovate, or maintain existing property. A property investor sees lots of risk but not much in the way of rewards. Who does end up as 'landlords' are those who are of a dark nature: Bribes, strong-arm tactics, legal maneuvers, etc... anything possible to wring out income out of a property whilst it falls apart. IMHO, there is something major the mayor and city council could do to encourage growth / urban renewal: Vacancy rent de-control if existing building are fully renovated (brought up to as close to the current electrical, plumbing, insulation, etc. codes as possible). For example, on Bergen ave there are rows of what were middle upper-middle class apartments built during the boom years of the '20s. They could be really nice buildings again (they were built well). However, the only way to make money as rentals is to go Section 8 due in part to the rent control laws. Let the new owners have the standard 5 year abatement (which all property owners who renovate are entitled to).
Posted on: 2015/4/15 13:23
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